Nelson Mattos, Engineering Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa

HUNDREDS of tech savvy entrepreneurs and developers gather at a web and mobile conference in Nairobi.

The over 1200 engineers, product managers, entrepreneurs, students and web developers are expected to discuss the future of web application development, and receive training on Google’s products and online business skills.

At the same time, Google also announced the Kenyan launch of Android Market – an open distribution channel for mobile applications that allows developers to distribute their applications to users worldwide on a level playing field. Using Android Market, mobile users can find and download a wide range of free innovative software applications ranging from games to location-based services and on-the-go shopping.

Google’s web and mobile themed conference, named G-Kenya, confirms Google’s commitment to driving the web forward in Africa, and highlighting the entrepreneurial opportunities presented by the internet.

G-Kenya, will focus on Google’s developer and business technologies ranging from Android, mobile development and AppEngine to Google Maps for business, website optimization and online advertising.

Attendees will have the chance to explore Google’s open source technologies through a combination of tech talks, breakout sessions and codelabs run by engineers and business teams from across the globe.

Nelson Mattos, Engineering Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa said, “This is a significant event for us in Kenya, which we hope will engage the local tech and business communities, and highlight the opportunities of the web. Our aim is to make the internet more locally relevant and useful to Kenyans, to enable meaningful product development, and strengthening a vibrant and self-sufficient internet ecosystem in Arica.”

Moses Kemibaro, founder of Dotsavvy said, “It’s exciting to see G-Kenya kicking off this week: it will help promote innovation and entrepreneurship nationally and regionally, raise awareness among Kenyans about the opportunities of the web, and help shape the next generation of locally relevant web products.”

This conference is the latest in a series of interactive forums and tech days that Google has been holding across Africa this year, to promote innovation and business in the region. Google’s most recent developer and entrepreneur event took place in Kampala last week, whilst the next one will take place in Cape Town in November 2010.